Black Lives Matter protests shift public discourse

We show that Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests shift public discourse toward the movement’s agenda, as captured by social media and news reports. We find that BLM protests dramatically amplify the use of terms associated with the BLM agenda throughout the movement’s history. Longitudinal data show that terms denoting the movement’s theoretically distinctive ideas, such as “systemic racism,” receive more attention during waves of protest. We show that these shocks have notable impact beyond intense, or “viral,” periods of nationwide protest. Together, these findings indicate that BLM has successfully leveraged protest events to engender lasting changes in the ways that Americans discuss racial inequality.